The ruling Zanu PF has been dealt a major a blow
after about 200 former Zanu PF members and
National Youth Service (NYS) graduates defected
to the breakaway National Patriotic Front (NPF),
citing a number of reasons, including how their
leadership was hounded out of the revolutionary
party.

The Zanu PF defectors, led by former ruling party
Bulawayo district chairperson Andifasi Banda, said
they have since formed an NPF youth brigade
called the Zimbabwe National Youth Service
Graduates Association that they said will coordinate
the opposition party’s campaigns.

Zanu PF was, however, quick to dismiss the
defections as a misleading political charade.

Speaking during a welcome ceremony over the
weekend in Makokoba high density suburbs, Banda
confirmed kissing goodbye to the party that had
been their home for years.

“As national youth service graduates, we realised
that we were not being well taken care of in the
ruling party,” Banda said.

“We realised we were only being used and that is
why we said enough is enough and cut ties with
the ruling party. And so, what we have done is to
form a new organisation of NYS graduates called
Zimbabwe National Youth Service Graduates
Association.

We currently have a membership of
plus or minus 3 000 who have said they are
prepared to jump ship and work with NPF. We have
covered a lot of ground, and we are ready to hit the
campaign trail,” Banda, who used to be a menace
to opposition parties in the city during his time as
the Green Bombers leader, said.

The defectors were welcomed by Butholezwe
Ngwenya, an NPF executive member who also
indicated that a number of disgruntled Zanu PF
members were still in the process of joining the
Ambrose Mutinhiri-led party.

“We are in Makokoba welcoming Zanu PF
members who have defected from the ruling party
to join NPF. We have teams in other
constituencies, canvassing and we will be going to
other constituencies to welcome other members
from Zanu PF into NPF.”

Zanu PF youth league provincial chair Khumbulani
Mpofu, while acknowledging the names of some of
the defectors, dismissed the defections as malice.

“That’s nothing but malice. Zanu PF is a
revolutionary party and its growing you can’t have
such a big number like 200 people moving en
masse to join a non-existent party like NPF, that’s
impossible and that will never happen in our
lifetime. Let them wallow in their fake defections
and they will see the real defections from the
election results,” Mpofu said.

The defections come a fortnight after NPF’s Eunice
Sandi Moyo, hosted about 600 party supporters in
the city as they prepare for the forthcoming
elections- DailyNews